Babymoon Tourism: Co-Creating Well-Being for Traveling Mothers

Abstract

This article aims to provide insight into how babymoon tourism can contribute to well-being by using a multimethod approach, combining autoethnography and netnography. The findings show that mothers-to-be experience well-being derived from co-creation and meaning. Participation in activities and everyday-like events at the destination can lead to happiness and improved quality of life. Self-development, empowerment, interpersonal interactions, and engagement with local culture all inspire well-being. In contrast, destinations’ representations of babymoon tourism focus on physical facilities, where culture and co-creation are absent in the realization of well-being. Viewing co-creation of well-being through a cultural interaction lens suggests an untapped potential for tourism businesses and could be a way forward for promoting babymoons. The study makes theoretical and practical contributions. Its original methodological approach, namely an autoethnographic narrative of babymoon tourism, could lower the threshold for conducting autoethnographic studies in current travel research, and encourage further studies of babymoon tourism.